Awhile back I came across two cocktail menus for San Diego’s Bali Hai Restaurant online that I believe are from the 1950s. I was intrigued by the fact that they included some cocktails no longer on the restaurant’s menu. Although no recipes are listed on any of the menus, they do usually list most of the ingredients. And from those descriptions one can usually deduce recipes that are probably fairly close.

Of the 13 cocktails listed on the first menu, nine are still being served at Bali Hai. However, of those, it seems only the Singapore Sling has remained relatively unchanged. The current Bali Hai cocktail menu lists 21 tropical cocktails, plus five “Coladas or Daiquiris.”

So I thought I'd try my hand at recreating some of these older cocktails. Here are the two early menus I speak of:

I started my project with the cocktail that has intrigued me the most. The Shelter Island’s Whaler’s Punch is a cocktail that appears on older Bali Hai menus, but is no longer served. And that intrigues me because it means I can resurrect a lost cocktail. But in doing so there had to be some guess work. The menus list the ingredients as Jamaican rum, cognac, cherry brandy and California fruits. California fruits? OK, one is bound to be orange juice. But since the description is “fruits” I presume there has to be at least one more. Glancing through the ingredients of all the cocktails on the menus that include this cocktail, four juices are listed in total: orange, lime, cherry and pineapple. Pineapple would never be considered a “California” fruit. Oranges, cherries and limes are all grown in California, but since cherry brandy is one of the ingredients, would you also include cherry juice? Seems unnecessary. Therefore, I think there were probably two juices and they were orange and lime.

1 oz Jamaican Dark Rum
½ oz Cognac
½ oz Cherry Brandy
2 oz Orange Juice
¾ oz Lime Juice
½ oz Simple Syrup
Ari, That was delicious, although I omitted the simple syrup. Can't wait for the next one.
Just so you know I'm not looking for a free ride, I'm ' fiddlin with the ingredients for their "Cup of GOLD"
My wife and I were at Humphreys last week end and we made several forays to the B H's bar. Olivia is our favorite bartender there and I polished off a couple Mai Tai's made by her then we killed a bottle of champagne back at Humphrey's.
Next day at lunch I backed off a little and had the barkeep make us a Hurricane and a Cup of Gold. My wife liked the C o G better so I finished the Hurricane (too sweet) and ordered a C O G as I thought it quite tasty. Fishing for proportions,I asked the bartender How much rum was in this drink. He said 1 and 1/2 0z. I had him make me one with just 1 oz. Almost a Pina Colada with a little Orange Julius thrown in. I Liked it.
Cheers

On 2013-01-31 12:39, nui 'umi 'umi wrote:Ari, That was delicious, although I omitted the simple syrup. Can't wait for the next one.
Just so you know I'm not looking for a free ride, I'm ' fiddlin with the ingredients for their "Cup of GOLD"
My wife and I were at Humphreys last week end and we made several forays to the B H's bar. Olivia is our favorite bartender there and I polished off a couple Mai Tai's made by her then we killed a bottle of champagne back at Humphrey's.
Next day at lunch I backed off a little and had the barkeep make us a Hurricane and a Cup of Gold. My wife liked the C o G better so I finished the Hurricane (too sweet) and ordered a C O G as I thought it quite tasty. Fishing for proportions,I asked the bartender How much rum was in this drink. He said 1 and 1/2 0z. I had him make me one with just 1 oz. Almost a Pina Colada with a little Orange Julius thrown in. I Liked it.
Cheers

Yeah, it's interesting. I think the Cup of Gold (or Cup o' Gold as it was once called) may have actually been a pina colada originally as the listing of orange juice is a recent addition.

The Blue Gardenia that once appeared on older Bali Hai menus is now known as the Blue Mystique. Along the way, the cocktail has changed a bit. But first some history:

“The Blue Gardenia” was a 1953 film noir directed by Fritz Lang. In the film, a woman gets drunk on a few Polynesian Pearl Diver cocktails at a Polynesian themed restaurant and goes home with a man she meets at the bar. They get into a scuffle and the next day the man is found dead and the woman fears she may have killed him. The film’s title theme song was sung by Nat King Cole. A film about a woman getting drunk, going home with a strange man, and possibly killing him seems like an odd choice to name your cocktail after. But perhaps the perceived danger was appealing.

The Blue Gardenia, like the Blue Mystique, was a cocktail for two. Originally the drink called for Rhum Negrita from Martinique, lime juice, blue Curacao and brandy, and was garnished with a gardenia blossom.

I don’t know when the cocktail name was changed to Blue Mystique, or if the ingredients to the cocktail changed at the same time as the name or if the changes have been ongoing. Either way, the Blue Mystique is made with Ron Rico light rum from Puerto Rico, blue Curacao, Sweet n Sour, and brandy. Sadly, it’s not garnished with a blue mystique orchid, but a pineapple wedge and cocktail cherry.

Continuing my occasional series (which probably only I care about), this installment is about the Aloha Kiss. The Bali Hai still serves an Aloha Kiss cocktail, but descriptions from past and current menus show that it has changed a at least a little. In early cocktail menus, the Aloha’s ingredients are listed as “Guava, Cranberry, Orange and Lemon Juices, Rhum (sic) and Rock & Rye.” The current menu lists the cocktails' ingredients only as “Ron Rico Light Rum & a Blend of Fruit Juices.” I don’t know if the “blend of fruit juices” is the same as the old version or not, but there's no mention of Rock & Rye.

This cocktail intrigued me as I’d never had Rock & Rye. Although not as common as it used to be, you can still buy it commercially. But after scouring the Internet I discovered that it’s not difficult to make yourself. So that’s what I did by combining rye whiskey with pineapple chunks, lemon slices and horehound candies, letting sit for a few days, and then straining. With that and all the rest of the ingredients at hand, last night I attempted to replicate the old version of the Aloha Kiss. Here’s my recipe:

As always with these recreations, I had to guess at the measurements, and I’ve no idea if they are even close to the original. But this turned out to be a very nice cocktail, with none of the juices overpowering the others. What surprised me was how the rye cut through all the flavors and held its own. Note: Traditionally this should have been garnished with an orchid – I didn’t have an orchid.